Obama campaigns again but does not use Trump’s name

Former President Barack Obama called on fellow Democrats to reject politics of ‘division’ and ‘fear’ while rallying on Thursday with party’s candidates for governors in Virginia and New Jersey.

‘Why are we deliberately trying to misunderstand each other, and be cruel to each other and put each other down? That’s not who we are,’ Obama said at the Virginia rally in front of several thousand supporters.

Stepping back into the political spotlight for the first time since leaving the White House in January, Obama did not mention President Donald Trump in his speeches at Richmond’s convention center or at a Newark hotel.

But he did tell crowds at both events that they could send a message to the rest of the country in the upcoming elections.

‘Our democracy’s at stake and it’s at stake right here in Virginia,’ Obama said.

Virginia and New Jersey are the only two states electing new governors this year and those November 7 races will be considered a bellwether of Democrats’ strength in the face of Trump’s victory last year.

Obama’s remarks came on the same day as former President George W. Bush denounced bigotry in Trump-era American politics, warning that the rise of ‘nativism,’ isolationism and conspiracy theories have clouded the nation’s true identity.

Obama bemoaned the rise of racial politics.

‘Some of the politics we see now we thought we put that to bed,’ Obama said. ‘That’s folks looking 50 years back. It’s the 21st century, not the 19th century.’

The first black president offered himself as proof that the country could move forward, telling the crowd in Richmond, the former Capitol of the Confederacy, that he is a distant relative to Confederate President Jefferson Davis on his mother’s side.

Obama praised Northam, a pediatric neurologist, as a candidate who would well represent Virginia and accused Gillespie of running a fear-based campaign. A Gillespie said Obama’s comments were not a ‘surprise’ coming at a rally for Northam.

Guadagno’s spokesman, Ricky Diaz, suggested it’s Murphy and not Republicans who are divisive.

‘Phil Murphy is the one who will divide New Jersey by raising taxes so high that only the über rich like him will be able to afford to live here,’ he said.